Defence lawyers in the central prisons’ documents trial accused a prosecution lawyer of a conflict of interest on Wednesday, as the Nicosia permanent criminal court heard clarifications over classified material withheld from the defence.

Christos Triantafyllides, representing former prisons director Anna Aristotelous, told the court he had learned that Vasilis Bissas, who recently joined fellow prosecution lawyer Theodora Papakyriakou on the case, maintains close ties with the husband of one of the defendants.

He argued this breached lawyers’ ethical rules and asked the court to summon Bissas to respond.

Bissas rejected the characterisation, informing the court that the legal service was in fact aware of the relationship and had cleared him to handle the case.

He insisted he had contacted the individual only to inform him he would be involved in the trial, and had never approached any defendant directly, only their lawyers.

The court ruled it had no jurisdiction over what it called a disciplinary matter, since no ethical breach was found.

On the withheld documents, prosecutor Papakyriakou said the material had been reviewed following questions raised at an earlier hearing, including over how certain documents were numbered.

She also produced a clearer copy of a document the court had previously received as a blank page, which she said was a map of the central prisons.

Triantafyllides objected, arguing the document produced on Tuesday was not the same one the defence had originally asked the court to examine, and that there was no way to confirm otherwise.

The court dismissed the objection as unfounded, saying disputes over content could be raised during the main trial, and reserved its interim ruling on whether the disputed material will be admitted as evidence for September 22.

Eight people face trial over the case, including Aristotelous and former deputy director Athena Dimitriou, accused of offences including conspiracy and the theft of 48,432 documents from the central prisons.